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Interview with Brendan O’Brien, Editor and Writer

Today I’d like to share my interview with Brendan O’Brien, originally posted on the blog The Editors’ Weekly. Brendan lives in County Cavan, Ireland, and has over 26 years of experience as a writer and editor. He will be speaking at Editing Goes Global, the first international conference for editors.

(The conference is being held in Toronto, Canada in June – so those of you who are writers or editors and are in the general area may want to check it out.)

In other news, wallcat from My Inner Geek wrote a great follow-up to my Black Widow post from last week. It’s been wonderful to see all the lively and respectful discussion around the topic of female characters.

Finally, my apologies for being late in replying to comments last week. I’ve been down with a pesky virus but am now recovering. I should be back to my usual schedule with an original post for next week. 🙂

That convention sounds amazing!! I wish I could go. I want to start really honing my editing skills for grad school, but also because I’m involved with so many anthology projects at present that can’t afford paid editors.

I went to the conference last year, which at the time was only for Canadian editors – it was a fantastic experience. 🙂 Having an international one this year is wonderful!

The Editors’ Association of Canada also offers seminars through local branches (to both members and non-members) – you may want to check them out. I believe the west coast branch is very active. It never hurts to improve those self-editing skills. 🙂 There’s a seminar called Eight-Step Editing which I highly recommend, they seem to run it periodically. Here’s a current list of all their seminars, to give you an idea: http://www.editors.ca/training/seminars/index.html

Yes, first you need to run the gauntlet, and then be hung over a parapet by your baby toe. 😉

I agree that the certification requirements are quite intense, but you actually can become a member without being a certified editor and get the same benefits. 🙂 Here’s the membership page, in case you are interested: http://www.editors.ca/join_eac/index.html

Interesting interview, Sue! I like that Irish saying “There is no strength without unity.” So sad about his son.
I haven’t watched the Avengers yet, so I’m staying away from that post.
Hope you get over that virus soon!

Hope you feel better soon Sue! Catching a virus in Spring really is the worse because you never see it coming.
That’s a great interview by the way. I studied Maths and Psychology, same Brendan – how random!

A lovely little peek into the world of editor O’Brien–and a realm of the publishing industry rather foreign to many folks, writers and readers alike. It was a terrific interview, Sue. Congratulations on a well-written piece and I hope the conference goes splendidly.
Be well – or get well. And stay well. Cheers!